Increasing Network Area Spectral Efficiency by combining multiple PHY techniques

Physical Layer (PHY) techniques such as Spatial Multiplexing, Eigen Beamforming, Eigen Beamnulling, Power Control, Spectrum Segmentation and Link Adaptation have been proved effective in improving the Network Area Spectral Efficiency of ad hoc networks. Several works have focused on optimizing the parameters of these PHY techniques individually to maximize different components of the Network Area Spectral Efficiency using an analytical approach. However, the impact of combining these PHY techniques has not been well studied. Moreover, it remains to be seen what kind of tradeoffs exist in a realistic scenario where the the parameters of the PHY techniques need to be selected in a distributed manner and there might not be scope for complex optimization. We use a heuristic based approach to combine these six PHY techniques in a distributed manner, and analyze the performance of the network in the presence of practical non-idealities. Simulation results indicate that the gain in network area spectral efficiency achieved by combining these PHY techniques is additive, and is atleast 3x better than any of the PHY techniques in isolation.